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WASHINGTON 

OUR NATIONAL CAPITAL 



o4n Illustrated Lecture by 
Hon. Henry B. F. Macfarland 



HORACE K. TURNER LECTURE CO. 

Oak Hill, Newton Center, Mass. 






500 II-I-09. 



©CLC 221(;^' 



S, 






.WASHINGTON, OUR NATIONAL CAPITAL. 

jV, BY HON. HENRY B. F. MACFARLAND. 

t "" 

Copyrighted 1909. 

FOUNDED by George Washington, the scene of Abraham 
Lincoln's greatest services, the city where every Presi- 
' dent except Washington administered, where every Congress 
since the Fifth, every session of the Supreme Court since 1800, 
every decision of Chief Justice Marshall, helped to make the 
history of the United States, Washington, our National Capi- 
tal stands unique. Every patriotic American wants to visit it. 
P'ew of the many millions of Americans can see it except in 
picture. It is worth almost any sacrifice to freshen one's 
patriotism by visiting its historic scenes. 

Every American ought to know that the district of 
Columbia, containing the Federal City, (as George Washington 
called it) the City of Washington, (as Congress called it,) was 
the last great work of the Father of His Country. He made it 
ready for the National Government so that it moved over from 
Philadelphia in 1800, a year after he died. Experience, espe- 
cially the rout of Congress from Philadelphia in 1783 by unpaid 
Revolutionary soldiers, had taught that the National Govern- 
ment must have an independent home under its control. 
George Washington put provision for it in the Constitution 
which established the new Government in 1789, and afterwards 
selected the site on the Potomac and directed the planning of 
2 the city by the French Engineer, Major L'Enfant, and the 
American engineer, Major Ellicott. 

Never forget that the idea was George Washington's and 
the plan his prediction, as though writ large in his own hand- 
writing that the nation just born would live and grow to great- 
ness requiring a great Capital. Jefferson, Hamilton, and 
Madison sympathized with Washington in this thought, but 
most public men at home and abroad doubted whether such a 
great capital would ever be needed, and many of them feared 
that no capital would be needed long. For many years 
even Washington's reputation for common sense did not save it 
from the jests of home and foreign wit. 



The removal of the capital westward, after Jefferson ac- 
quired the Louisiana Territory, and particularly after the 
British took the city and burned the Capitol and the President's 
house in 1814, might have been made had not the invention of 
railway and telegraphy quickened communication, and even so, 
it was agitated until the Civil War made removal impossible 
because of the blood and treasure poured out to keep Wash- 
ington the capital of the United States as the symbol of sover- 
eignty. It was not, however, until 1878 that the National 
Government began to do its duty in the maintenance and 
development of the National Capital when it entered into the 
present arrangement with the District tax payers, who then 
relinquished the suffrage, to pay one-half of the municipal ex- 
penses, which had been borne before wholly by the District 
people. The nineteen original proprietors of the farms taken 
for the site gave half their property to George Washington for 
the National Government, and the President's house and the 
Capitol were built partly out of the sale of lots. The poverty 
of the young nation, and afterwards the agitation for removal, 
prevented the execution of George Washington's plans for 
seventy years. Begun then by Governor Alexander R. Shep- 
herd, once almost execrated because of the great cost of 
his improvements, but now honored by a statue raised by the 
citizens in front of the District Government Building, the pro- 
gress made in the last thirty years is unexcelled anywhere. 

Beautiful for situation, in its natural amphitheatre, Wash- 
ington, rich in noble buildings, with more parks and more 
street trees than any other city in the world, is now the rival 
of the best capitals abroad and is sure to surpass them all. 

Much credit is due the Senate Park Commission, D. H. 
Burnham, Frederick Law Olmstead, Charles F. McKim, and 
Augustus St. Gaudens, which was appointed in 1900 as an 
outgrowth of the National Capital Centennial Celebration, 
This commission reported in 1902 that the George Washington 
plan was the best that could be made for the city and applied 
its principles to the rest of the District. 

The magnificent Union Station, just completed, is the 
splendid gateway that the railway entrance of every city ought 
to be. It was designed by D. H. Burnham, head of the Senate 
Park Commission, and famous for his W^orld's Fair work, and 
is at once, the largest, finest, and the most beautiful railway sta- 
tion in the world. Longer than the Capitol, with space in its 
concourse for the regular army of the United States to stand 
shoulder to shoulder, it is beyond the present needs, except at 
Presidential inaugurations, and is ready for the future. It is a 



part of the great railway terminal improvements made since 
1900, including the abolition of all grade crossings, and costing 
in all about twenty-five million dollars. It faces Massachusetts 
Avenue, the principal east and west boulevard, and looks out 
south to the capitol. A fine plaza will contain a hundred thou- 
sand dollar monumental memorial of Columbus. It is pro- 
posed to buy all the land between the plaza and the Capitol, 
which is eight hundred yards away, and convert it into a park. 

We can easily walk from the station to the Capitol, gradu- 
ally climbing Capitol Hill, and passing on the left the classic 
building just occupied by the Senate for committee rooms 
and office rooms, giving every senator a handsome suite and 
providing magnificent rooms for conference and other senatorial 
purposes. Here the tariff bill of 1909 was revised in the 
Finance Committee Room, after it had been passed by the 
House, and after it had been prepared in the Ways and Means 
Committee Rooms. The House Office building is a like struct- 
ure of larger size and similar purpose across the Capitol Square, 
where committees and members of the House of Representa- 
tives have their quarters. 

It is well to approach the Capitol from the Union Station 
because you thus see first the real front of the building, facing 
east. The city was intended to be east of the Capitol, but 
because of the high real estate prices and the natural tendency 
to build near the President's house, it went west of the Capitol, 
although now Capitol Hill, as it is called, is well built up. 

In recent years the west front of the Capitol has been 
made more ornamental to suit the change in the city, but the 
figure of Armed Liberty surmounting the Dome still faces the 
rising sun. 

Stand by the fountains on the plaza and study the east 
front of the Capitol. Notice its perfect proportions which 
make it the finest public building in the world, notwithstanding 
the fact that marble wings were added to the original sand- 
stone building and an iron dome raised above the center, the 
latter completed by Lincoln's faith while the Civil war was 
going on. 

Political and personal memories crowd upon the mind of 
every reader of history as he looks at the building which has 
been the home of Congress and of the Supreme Court ever 
since 1800, and sees just before him the place where the tem- 
porary wooden platforms have stood, from which almost every 
President since John Adams has delivered his inaugural address 
and taken oath of office from the Chief Justice of the United 
States. 



Greatest of all stands out Abraham Lincoln, who twice 
stood on the east front of the Capitol, and spoke to his country- 
men in the interest of the Union, 

Approaching nearer you see that there are elaborate 
bronze doors at each of the principal entrances. It is a matter 
of choice where we begin to look at the interior. Suppose we 
iQ begin with the north or Senate wing, walk up the broad stairs 
and enter through the bronze doors designed by Thomas 
Crawford and cast at Chicopee, Massachusetts. Its panels 
picture the death of Warren at Bunker Hill, 1775 ; Washing- 
ton's Rebuke of General Charles Lee at Monmouth, 1778; 
Hamilton's Gallantry at Yorktown, 1781 ; Washington's Recep- 
tion at Trenton, on the Way to His Inauguration as First Pres- 
ident, 1789; Washington's First Inauguration, 1789; Laying 
the Cornerstone of the Capitol, 1793 ; and at the bottom, alle- 
gories of War and Peace. 

Visitors sometimes ask to see the office of the President 
at the Capitol, where they understand he does all his official 
work. Of course he does his official work, not at the Capitol, 
but in the little office building adjoining what is now called the 
White House, although it ought to have its older and better 
name, the President's House, which it kept until it was 
painted white to hide the smoke stains after its burning by the 
British. But whenever the President does work at the Capi- 
tol it is in a room called the President's Room, just back of the 
Senate chamber and within a short distance of the door 
I ' which we are entering. The President goes to this room on 
the last day of a session of Congress to pass upon bills passed 
in the closing hours, in order that he may conveniently exam- 
ine them and consult Senators and Representatives about 
them. 

In the early .days Presidents visited the chambers of 
Congress, but no modern President would dream of doing so 
when either house was doing business ; although they do 
appear in either house upon inaugural, funeral and other formal 
occasions. Theoretically, the President is not supposed to 
influence the Congress in any way except by his formal 
messages. 

We then come to the Vice-President's Room, which con- 
tains a marble bust of Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, who 
died in this room, November 22, 1875, when he was Vice- 
President of the United States. 

Elevators will take us to the floor just above, where we 
can see everything very well from the public galleries. Unless 



there is a large crowd any Senator will give a card for a re- 
served gallery to any respectable applicant. 

Looking around the galleries we see that there are special 
reservations for the press with desks, and we are told that just 
opposite is the gallery for the Diplomatic Corps, and at the 
north end is the gallery for the President, the Vice-President 
and the Cabinet, or rather for their families. We see marble 
busts of some of the Vice-Presidents in niches of the gallery 
walls, and later see others in the corridors, together with the 
oil portraits of famous statesmen. Looking up we see that 
the walls are richly decorated and that the glass ceiling is 
colored with allegorical pictures. 

We are told that the hall is 113 feet long and 82 feet 
wide, and that the glass ceiling through which the sunlight 
comes by day, and the electric light by night, is thirty-six feet 
above the floor. 

Looking down we see that the President of the Senate 
(the Vice-President, or the President Pro Tempore) sits in the 
highest seat behind the desk in a niche midway in the north 
wall of the room. In front of his desk is that of the Secretary 
and Clerks, and still lower down that of the official reporters 
who make a stenographic record of everything that is said. 

We see that every senator has a desk and a chair and 
that they are placed in concentric rows ; and we are told that 
the Democratic side is to the right of the aisle which runs 
from the Vice-President's dais to the south door, which is the 
main entrance, while the Republicans are seated to the left of 
the Vice-President. Rarely is it possible to fore-know an in- 
teresting speech, much less a dramatic episode, and the chance 
visitor is as apt to happen on one or the other as a resident of 
Washington. 

It is in the Senate Chamber that the Vice-President takes 
the oath of office on the same day, but before the President is 
inaugurated. 

President Taft took the oath of office and delivered the 
' ^ inaugural address in the Senate Chamber because a great snow 
storm, of which this is a photograph, made it dangerous to 
have the inauguration on the East Front of the Capitol. The 
many thousands who waited in the snow, refusing to believe 
even the official announcement that the inauguration would be 
held in the Senate Chamber, were grevieusly disappointed. 
But the two thousand who packed the galleries and the floor of 
the Senate enjoyed the unusual, almost unique, experience 
which had not a precedent within the lifetime of any one 
present. " All Washington," that is, the leaders of official life, 



and of " Society," including all Ambassadors and Ministers, 
were there, and the costumes of the ladies together with the 
diplomatic and military uniforms gave brilliant color. After- 
wards, President Taft walked through the Capitol to the East 
Front and over the stand where he was to have been inaugu- 
rated, and took his carriage, with Mrs. Taft, where all the 
people could see them as they started to ride at the head of 
the great procession up Pennsylvania 'Avenue. Mrs. Taft set 
a precedent by riding with her husband. 

President Taft's inauguration day was not as cold as 
President Grant's of 1873, when a biting blizzard struck down 
men as they marched or stood in the procession. But the 
snow storm was so great as to endanger many lives, cause a 
large number of deaths within a month, and thereby furnish a 
new argument to the National Committee of State Governors 
and prominent Washingtonians which has been working for an 
amendment to the Constitution, twice carried through the 
Senate by Senator Hoar, changing the day to the last Thurs- 
day in April, the day on which Washington was first inaugu- 
rated President. Nothing but the difficulty of amending the 
Constitution delays this change which every good American 
should advocate. 

But we cannot longer remain at the Senate, fascinating as 
it is in many ways. A short walk southward along the main 
corridor brings us to the Supreme Court Room which was the 
Senate Chamber until the Senate wing was completed in 1857. 
Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and their contemporaries made their 
great speeches of course in the old Senate Chamber, which 
seems very small to us. It will not hold one-fifth of the peo- 
ple who can crowd into the new Senate Chamber. Webster's 
voice might easily have shaken this room until the windows 
rattled. Fortunately there were fewer visitors, but when 
Webster made his reply to Hayne many who came late did not 
get in. 

The Chief Justice of the United States sits in the middle, 
on the dais right behind the long desk with four Justices on 
his right and the other four on his left. Above them is a 
bronze eagle and behind them a lobby where they can stretch 
their legs, see visitors, or eat a sandwich when they are too 
absorbed to go to luncheon. Before them are the counsel 
tables and outside the rail the cushioned benches for the pub- 
lic, while busts of former chief justices ornament the semi- 
circular wall. The formal opening of the court at twelve 
o'clock, when the justices march in slowly in their dignified 



robes, is one of the few impressive public ceremonies still 
surviving. 

The old Supreme Court Room is just beneath the present 
one, and is occupied by the Law Library. It was in this 
lower room that the great arguments of the elder lawyers like 
Webster's in the Dartmouth College case were made. Nowa- 
days, formal oratory is not encouraged in the Supreme Court, 
at least in ordinary cases. But in the Income Tax cases, 
Richard Olney and Joseph H. Choate made arguments of old- 
fashioned eloquence. 

Just beyond the Supreme Court Room is the entrance to 
the long, winding stairway that leads to the top of the dome of 
the Capitol, There is no elevator, so we must walk up. But 
we are well repaid by the splendid view of the whole city of 
Washington when we reach the top, nearly two hundred and 
fifty feet from where we started. On a clear day, especially 
in the springtime when all the hundred thousand trees of the 
streets and parks are glorious in their green, the scene is 
enchanting. This is the place from which to master the plan 
of the city, rectangular streets crossed by transverse avenues, 
all related to the Capitol. We see the four divisions of the 
city, the northwest, southwest, southeast, northeast, made by 
the street axes running through the Capitol. The most inter- 
esting view is toward the west, taking in the Washington Mon- 
ument and the President's House, about a mile away, with the 
other public buildings near and far but all in sight, and with 
the park system clearly defined. Beyond the Potomac rises 
the hill called Arlington where the Union and Confederate 
soldiers and heroes of all our wars sleep in Robert E. Lee's 
old home estate. To the east we see the Library of Congress 
with its gilded dome, just across the park, and to the right and 
left, the House and Senate Office Buildings. From this point 
we get the best idea of the size of the Capitol which is about 
seven hundred and fifty feet long, three hundred and fifty feet 
wide, and covers over three and a half acres. 

We remember that President Washington laid the corner 
stone of the old or central building, September i8, 1793; and 
that Daniel Webster made the oration when President Fillmore 
laid the cornerstone of the extensions on the 4th of July. 1851; 
and that the dome on which we stand, unequalled in its kind, 
was finished in 1865. Above us towers the lantern, lighted 
with electric lights during the night session of either house, 
and above that the bronze figure " Armed Liberty," nearly 
twenty feet high. 

Returning down the stairway, stopping at different levels 



8 

to view the interior of the dome, called the Rotunda ; we enter 
that remarkable room as soon as we reach the main floor. We 
should look up the first thing and see the extraordinary alle- 
gorical fresco at the top, representing George Washington sur- 
rounded by the thirteen original States and many other figures. 

I g As our eyes come down from the height of one hundred and 
eighty feet we see other frescoes, and finally the well-known 
historical paintings by Trumbull and others, those of Trumbull 
being espectally valuable because the chief figures were por- 
trayed from life. Perhaps the best known is that of Washing- 

'^ ton surrendering his commission as commander-in-chief to the 
Congress at Annapolis. A well-known example of the other 
Rotunda pictures is that of the Baptism of Pocohontas, painted 

20 by the American artist, John G. Chapman. (Read slowly.) 

Turning to the door leading out to the East Front, through 
which Presidents go on Inauguration Day, we niay examine the 

21 Randolph Rogers' bronze doors illustrating the career of 
Columbus. 

From this remarkable circular room we pass through the 
southern door, almost immediately into the old hall of the 
House of Representatives where all the ante-bellum statesmen 
debated, and where John Quincy Adams fell at his post, dying 
^^ in the little room, then used as a clerk's office. It is a semi- 
circular hall, much larger than the old Senate Chamber, and 
through the suggestion of Mr. Morrill of Vermont, in 1864, 
has been set apart as a national Statuary Hall. Each State 
may send two statues of "her chosen sons," Morrill's resolution 
said, but Illinois has sent as one of her gifts, the statue of a 

23 chosen daughter, Frances E. Willard, the only woman thus 
honored in the Capitol. Her beautiful memorial stands beside 
a bronze replica of Houdon's George Washington, the original 
being in the State Capitol at Richmond, which Jefferson and 
Marshall pronounced the best portrait of Washington ever 
made. Virginia has just given this statue accompanied by one 
of Robert E. Lee. The States have not all responded to the 
invitation, but there are a number of statues of varied artistic 
character and interest. Two of the best are those sent by 

24 New Hampshire, Webster and Stark, flanking the northern 
doorway under the famous clock representing " History." 
The statues of Samuel Adams and John Winthrop, sent by 
Massachusetts, are near those of Webster and Stark and are 
equally effective. 

Crossing the Statuary Hall to the south door, between 
Ohio's statues of President Garfield and Governor William 
Allen, if we face about we can test some of the astonishing 



9 

acoustics of this hall of whispers. If we walk to either end of 
the row of marble columns we can whisper to our friend at the 
other end and the sound will be carried along the arch and 
down again as perfectly as by any telephone. 

Passing through the south door we are in the House of 
Representatives wing. As at the Senate we find interesting 
pictures and statues. If you walk up one stairway to the gal- 
lery floor you shall find painted on the rough walls Leutze's 
spirited " Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way," 
with the pioneers going over the mountains to the winning of 
the West. 

If we go up over the other stairway we shall see Carpen- 
ter's picture, " Lincoln Signing the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion." Entering the gallery we find that the hall is in shape 
and arrangement like that of the Senate only it is larger, as it 
must be to accommodate three hundred and ninety-six members. 
The Speaker sits behind the white marble desk in the 
middle of the south side of the room, with an American flag at 
his back, facing the Democrats on his right and the Republi- 
cans on his left, sitting in concentric rows. Above his chair is 
the Press Gallery, opposite the Diplomatic Gallery, and over 
the west door, the gallery reserved for the family and friiends 
of the President. 

When the House is in session there is much more noise 
and conversation than in the Senate Chamber when the Senate 
is in session, and occasionally there are exciting scenes, and 
even disorder, which the speaker has to quell after he has 
pounded with the gavel, by sending the Sergeant-at-Arms 
with the Mace, the symbol of authority of the House. The 
Mace resembles the Roman Fasces, which the lictors carried, 
consisting of a number of rods of ebony bound with silver and 
surmounted by a silver globe bearing a silver eagle. Before 
this emblem the most disorderly member becomes quiet. As 
a rule, however, the members of both Houses behave with 
becoming dignity, and taken together, throughout the session 
there is no more dignified and impressive parliament in the 
world. Things have happened in the British House of Com- 
mons and in the legislative assemblies of France, Germany, 
Austria, and Italy which would be impossible in our Congress. 

The Supreme Court has no chaplain. Justice Brewer 
said once at a public dinner at Washington that he did not 
know whether it was because it was thought that the Supreme 
Court needed no prayer, or that it was past praying for. But 
the Senate and House have chaplains. 

The revered and beloved Edward Everett Hale was chap- 



10 

26 lain of the Senate when he died, and his daily service at the 
opening of the session made a deep impression on everybody. 
After reading a few sentences, sometimes original, sometimes 
from the Bible, he offered an appropriate prayer, and then the 
Lord's Prayer, in which at first he always asked those present 
to unite. But so few responded that latterly he did not ask. 
His venerable and majestic appearance in his flowing robes of 
itself reminded men of higher things. On special occasions, 
notably of national grief or joy, his eloquence touched deep 
notes. He seemed the very incarnation of the patriotism he 
taught in all his writings, illustrated in "The Man Without a 
Country." His predecessor as chaplain was an eloquent blind 
man, Dr. Milburn, who had been Chaplain of the House, and 
whose successor, Dr. Couden, is also an eloquent blind man. 

Leaving the House of Representatives and the Capitol 

27 through another set of bronze doors, those at the eastern en- 
trance, representing more of our historical scenes, and walking 

23 down the steps of the eastern portico from the House of Rep- 
resentatives we see through the trees of the park the beautiful 
building of the Library of Congress. (Read slowly.) After a 
short walk we approach its front, presently seeing the detail 

29 of the handsome fountain below its main entrance. 

It is the finest library building in the world and best 
adapted to its purpose. It cost with the site over $6,600,000, 
covers nearly the same area as the Capitol, and consists of a 
large reading room in a high central rotunda, two enormous 

30 bookstacks, to the north and south, one smaller stack and a 
large number of galleries, pavilions and smaller rooms. The 
exterior is of New Hampshire white granite ; the inner courts, 

. (which help to make it so well lighted) are faced with Maryland 
granite and white bricks, and the interior is rich in marbles 
and mural decorations. Over all is a gilded dome ending in a 

31 representation of the Torch of Science as always lighted. Two 
of the bronze doors at the main entrance, tradition and writing, 
give you at once an idea of the remarkable detail of the 

32 building. (Read slowly.) 

Wherever you enter and wherever you go in the building 
you are bewildered with the wealth of beauty and color, 
^o Here is a view of the north entrance hall. Notice the 
beautiful coloring of the Mosaic in the ceiHng and of the paint- 
ings in the arches. 

This is a view of the south entrance hall which is similar 

to the one we have just seen. The painting at the end of the 

34 corridor, Lyric Poetry, by H. O. Walker, is one of exceeding 

beauty, and our next picture will give a nearer view of it. 



11 

Lyric Poetry is represented by a woman standing in the center 

35 crowned with laurel, striking a lyre, while Passion, Beauty, 
Mirth, Pathos, Truth and Devotion attend her. 

The central hall, on the main floor, is magnificent in 
marbles, decorations, and at night in many lights. (Read 

36 slowly.) 

Entering, you stand in wonder, if not in awe, before you 
advance across the Signs of the Zodiac set in the floor towards 
^_ the reading room. At either side are the stairways. 

This stair hall should be seen from many points of view 

before it can be appreciated. Here for example is a side 

glimpse that is illustrative. Our lantern slide colorist has 

faithfully reproduced the exquisite color and marble effects of 

38 this Alhambra of America. 

Proceeding directly into the rotunda, as a reader in search 
for books, (for no other kind of visitor can enter on the reading 
room floor), you see the central office of distribution, and by 
asking for a book, test the excellence of the catalogue and of 
the mechanical system of tubes and carriers, which bring the 
oq book in a remarkably short time. 

Raising your eyes you begin a feast of beauty which may 
last for hours, as you look at the decorations, statues, and well- 
chosen mottoes, and high above all the Blashfield figures, in the 
collar of the dome, representing the Progress of Civilization. 

With a proper introduction you can go through the book- 
stacks, which, with the other shelving in the building, now 
contain over 1,300,000 volumes. They could hold over 
2,000,000 and may be enlarged by additional shelving to 
accommodate over 4,500,000 volumes. 

When we walk out of the reading room, we go from hall 
to hall and gallery to gallery, looking at beautiful paintings and 
decorations on the walls, and at interesting collections of old 
Af^ editions, manuscripts, autographs, engravings, and etchings, 
and other treasures. This picture represents Religion, painted 
by Charles S. Pearce. Days may be profitably spent in a 
careful study of the building and its contents. 

Most of the Chicago World's Fair artists and many of the 
best American sculptors and painters contributed to this un- 
exampled revel of beauty. 
41 Here we have a picture representing Study — a companion 
piece of the one we have just seen, and by the same artist, 
Chas. S. Pearce. 

We now take the street car for Pennsylvania Avenue at the 
southwest corner of the Library. It takes us swiftly down the 
hill, passing the Capitol on the right, and the house which 



12 

Benjamin F. Butler built of Cape Ann granite on the left 
where President Arthur began his administration as the guest 
of ^enator Jones, of Nevada, and now the headquarters of the 
Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Just south of it 
m an old fashioned brick building are the offices of the United 
btates Coast and Geodetic Survey. 

At the foot of the hill the car turns northward and skirts 

the Capitol park, rounding the statue of President Garfield on 

the right, and passing the Botanical Gardens on the left, where 

-^^ the imposing monument to General Grant is being built on 

the axis of the Washington Monument. 

As the car turns into Pennsylvania Avenue we see the 
,^ Peace Monument, commemorating the Army and Navy of the 
43 Civil War. ^ 

Pennsylvania Avenue is the principal street in convenience 
tor the visitor as in historic interest, for it touches almost every 
important public building and many scenes of history. Jeffer- 
son walked from his boarding house on Capitol Hill Avenue • 
^^ and General Andrew Jackson walked down this avenue to be 
inaugurated at the Capitol ; but every other President since 
John Adams rode. In every case, including that of Jefferson 
he was attended by a procession which has increased in size 
with the years. 

_ Presidents, Senators, Judges, Diplomats, may be seen on 
Its sidewalks, as well as on its roadway. Its width is its chief 
beauty, for most of the buildings are not attractive, and those 
in the blocks nearest the Capitol are very unattractive. The 
south side will be redeemed from its shabbiness under the 
plan for its conversion into a great park full of Governmental 
structures, and adjoining the park that now runs on the south 
from the Capitol past the Washington Monument to the 
Potomac River, called George Washington's Mall. 

Besides the Botanical Gardens on the left, and the Bar- 
tholdi Fountain, we see only old hotels and restaurants once 
frequented by great statesmen. 

Nearby we observe the monument to Stephenson, founder 
of the Grand Army of the Repubhc; and the District of CoL 
4!? umbia Courthouse, two blocks to the northeast, which is in 
front of the United States Pension Office, the headquarters of 
the pension system and the place where inaugural balls have 
been held in recent years. 

If we took a transfer to the Seventh Street car, going 
north, we should come in two or three minutes to two hand- 
some buildings, one the headquarters of the Interior Depart- 
ment, commonly called the Patent Office, because that office 



13 

was the most interesting to the general public when the patent 
46 models used to be on exhibition there ; and the other on the 
south side of F Street facing the Interior Department, now 
occupied by one of its bureaus, the Land Office, but formerly 
the headquarters of the Post Office Department. 

And if we should ride on a few minutes more we should 
come to the District of Columbia Public Library, in the build- 
.- ing given by Mr. Carnegie, at Seventh and K Streets, a com- 
paratively small library with an unusual circulation. 

Looking to the south, at Seventh and Pennsylvania Ave- 
nue, we see the Center Market. From the south side of the 
Center Market we can see the former site of the Pennsylvania 
Station at Sixth Street, where President Garfield was shot, 
which building was pulled down by President Roosevelt's 
order, after it had been surrendered by the railroad as part of 
the terminal improvements when all tracks were taken off the 
Mall. 

Looking down Seventh Street we can see on the other 
side of the Mall the buildings of the Fish Commission and the 
Army Medical Museum. 
.-. At Tenth Street, looking north, two blocks away, we see 
^^ the plain front of what used to be Ford's Theatre, where 
President Lincoln was shot, and which is now a War Depart- 
ment bureau. 

It faces the house where on a private soldier's bed Presi- 
dent Lincoln, who could not be moved any further, died as 

49 morning dawned This house is now a Lincoln museum, full 
of pictures, books and relics, well worth seeing. 

The new National Museum Building, a stately structure 
with a fine dome, stands across Tenth Street, at the northern 
edge of the Mall, two blocks south of Pennsylvania Avenue. 

At Eleventh Street, on the south side of Pennsylvania 
Avenue, stands the large building built for the City Post Office 
but now chiefly occupied by the Post Office Department ; on 
the north side, between Eleventh and Fifteenth Streets are 
some large and some handsome private structures, including 
three of the newspaper offices and two of the principal hotels. 

Between Thirteenth and a Half and Fourteenth Streets, 

50 on the south side, is the fine home of the executive government 
of the District of Columbia, a structure of white marble, cost- 
ing with the site two-and-a-half million dollars. 

The District is governed by a commission of three mem- 
bers, appointed by the President, with the powers of the 
former Governors of the District, and Mayors of Washington 
and with authority to make municipal ordinances. 



14 

The citizens pay half of the expense of the maintenance 
of the National Capitol, and the rest of the country pays the 
other half. 

In 1908 this amounted to sixteen dollars per capita for 
the District Residents, and six cents per capita for all other 
citizens of our country. 

The citizens, through their civic organizations, v/hich form 
and employ public opinion more effectively than is done where 
the suffrage obtains, celebrated the Fourth of July, 1908 ; — at 
once Independence Day, the opening of the District Govern- 
ment Building, and the thirtieth anniversary of the commission 
government, including the National Government's assumption 
of half of the expenses of the district and the abolition of 
suffrage. 

It interests all visitors, but especially Englishmen, to find that 
taxation without representation is not regarded as tyranny in 
the National Capital, even on the anniversary of the Declaration 
of Independence. But the District Tax-Payers, knowing 
that they have self-government by public opinion and declaring, 
as they did at the opening of the District Building, that it had 
been notably honest and efficient, generally do not care to give 
up the substance for the shadow. 

On the green lawn of the District Building is the statue of 
-^ ' Alexander R. Shepherd, once villified as "Boss," now honored as 
Governor, the man who appears in all his rugged strength, ready 
to tear down hills, fill up valleys, run the ploughshare of progress 
over the paper streets and avenues planned by Washington, but 
undeveloped until he made them real. 

It was paid for by popular subscription, and unveiled with 
elaborate ceremonies, which thousands of tax-payers attended, 
and in which the National as well as the District Government was 
represented. 

The five squares immediately west of the District Building are in 
process of condemnation by the National Government, as the site 
for new buildings for the Department of State, Department of 
Justice, and Department of Commerce and Labor, which will 
begin the general conversion of the south side of Pennsylvania 
Avenue into a Government Building Park. These Squares face 
Pennsylvania Avenue on the north, the Mall on the south, and the 
White House Park on the west, and will cost less than the two and 
a half millions appropriated by Congress. 

All the way up Pennsylvania Avenue we have seen the Treasury 
52 Department, stretching across it at Fifteenth Street, placed, tradi- 
tion says, by General Jackson, with one stroke of his cane, when 
as President he abruptly settled the dispute as to where it should go. 



15 

But for this, the President's House would have ended the vista 
from the Capitol. 

The Treasury Department is an admirable piece of classic 
architecture, if not a good modern office building, for many of 
its rooms lack proper light and ventilation. It covers a larger 
area than any other public building except the Capitol, for it is 
four hundred and fifty feet long and two hundred and fifty feet 
wide. 

Visitors usually want to see the banking side of the Treasury 
Department, the cash room, with its costly marbles, where Treas- 
ury warrants and checks are cashed at the rate of millions a day, 
sometimes in million dollar denominations; the bond and silver 
and gold vaults, where the Treasury assets are stored and where 
they, especially brides and grooms, are sometimes allowed to hold 
for a moment bags or bundles worth many millions. 

They are also interested in the division of issue, or redemption 
division of the paper money; the secret service division, with the 
samples of counterfeit money and counterfeiters' tools, and finally, 
in a brick building on the other side of the Mall, the Bureau of 
r-j Engraving and Printing, where Government bonds. National 
currency, postage, and revenue stamps, official commissions, 
passports, are turned out in great quantities. 

The fourteen hundred employees in fourteen divisions do expert 
work, all of which, except the engraving of plates, may be seen by 
visitors. The processes are interesting from beginning to end. 

There is no statue in Washington of John Sherman, who was 
Secretary of the Treasury, but just south of the Treasury Depart- 
ment is the statue of his brother, General William Tecumseh 
54 Sherman, who seems to be guarding the treasures of the Govern- 
ment. The treasures in the Department and the treasures in 
the making at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are most 
carefully guarded by a large force of watchmen and by an elaborate 
system of accounting which prevents employees from leaving any 
day until every account balances to a cent. 

Fifteenth Street from Pennsylvania x\ venue, opposite the 
^^ Treasury, and for a block beyond, is the Wall Street of Washington. 
At the north end of the Treasury Building, Pennsylvania Avenue 
appears, and as our car turns the corner westward, the Lafayette 
Monument at the southeast corner of Lafayette Square rises before 
the eye at our right, and the President's House through the great 
elms of its park, at our left. In a moment we can get off near the 
Lafayette Monument and walk across "The Avenue," towards 
the President's House. 
c^ You walk up through the broad driveway to the porte-cochere 
and so get the front view of the house, which is a very satisfying 



16 

building. Simple and stately are the adjectives usually applied 
to it. The building proper is one hundred and seventy feet long, 
and eighty-six feet deep, and was the first public building in Wash- 
ington. George Washington selected the site and the architect, 

57 James Hoban, who got his idea from the residence of the Duke of 
Leinster, near Dublin. 

The cornerstone was laid by Washington, October 13, 1792, 
and he lived to see the building finished. In 1902 and 1903 
the interior was strengthened and altered, and low wings con- 
structed, so as to provide on the west side the President's office 
and the Cabinet Room; and on the east side a colonnade, lined 
with boxes and hooks for hats and wraps, — a long desired con- 
venience for official entertainments. At the same time the con- 

58 servatory on the west side was entirely removed. The office build- 
ing was doubled in size in the summer of 1909. 

Visitors must go around to the eastern end of this colonnade 
to enter this building, passing through the basement corridor, 
ornamented by portraits of the mistresses of the House, and 
cabinets set up by Mrs. Roosevelt, containing specimens of the 
china and glass used by past administrations. 

The only room commonly shown to visitors is that called the 

-_ "East Room," the largest reception-room, which in its unfinished 

■^^ state Mrs. John Adams used as a drying-room for clothes. Its 

decorations have been changed from time to time. They are 

now in white and gold. 

It is here that the President receives large delegations, that 
important public meetings and state funerals have been held, 
and that musicales, dances, and receptions, have been given in the 
social season. Exercises commemorative of the National Capital 
Centennial, December 12. 1900; the conference called by President 
Roosevelt on the conservation of our natural resources; and later 
his conference on child-caring work, are typical of the serious 
official gatherings. President Roosevelt and President Taft 
have both danced in this room at evening entertainments. 

At certain hours, by special permit, when they are not in use 
by the President's family, you may see the smaller parlors, called 
the Blue Room, where President and Mrs. Cleveland were married, 
and where the President and his wife stand at State receptions; 
the green room and the red room (all named from the color of 
their decorations and furnishing) containing interesting portraits 
and relics, including the Washington portrait which Mrs. Dolly 
Madison cut from its frame and took to safety when she left for 
Virginia upon the advance of the British in 1814. 

The State dining-room as reconstructed, paneled in dark English 
oak, and in which President Roosevelt had mounted heads of 



17 

American big game, may also be seen at such times. The dining 
table seats one hundred guests. 

Any respectable person can enter the little office building west 
of the President's House, doubled in size to provide much needed 
space for the President and his official family. If he has any 
color of right to do so he can, at appropriate hours, at least shake 
hands with the President, and even have opportunity for conversa- 
tion. 
,p. The usual way to see the attractive park and the rear of the 
President's House is from outside the iron fence w^hich runs around 
its semi-circle. But in summer, Saturday afternoon concerts are 
given for the public on the lawn, and you can take a child to the 
egg-rolling there on Easter Monday. 

The Saturday afternoon lawn concerts by the Marine Band 
removed in May, 1909, to the Sherman .Statue park at the Treasury 
Department, were restored in August. 
51 The State, War and Navy Departments are in one large granite 
building directly w^est of the White House grounds and overlooking 
them. 

The State Department, gradually crowded in the south side 
of this building, facing us in this picture, desires and will have a 
building of its own. The War Department occupies the greater 
portion of the building. All three departments are obliged to have 
rented quarters outside as well. 

The State Department Library has on its wall the original 
draft of the Declaration of Independence in the handwriting of 
Thomas Jefferson, with interlineations by John Adams and Ben- 
jamin Franklin, than which there is no more interesting liberty 
document in the world. The engrossed copy, exhibited until the 
sun faded out two-thirds of the autographs of the signers though 
not effecting the text in the least, is now locked up with the signed 
copy of the Constitution of the United States in a State Department 
safe, which can only be opened on the order of the President or 
the Secretary of State. There, too, are the sword of Washington 
and the staff of Franklin. 

The State Department has many other valuable originals of 
treaties, laws, letters, and other documents. Throughout this 
building are a number of valuable relics, including the Fort Sumter 
flag, lowered and raised by Colonel Robert Anderson, and the flag 
wrapped around Lincoln's coffin when it was taken to Springfield. 
There are also many portraits and models of our naval vessels and 
military uniforms. 

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, the gift of W. W. Corcoran, a 

^2 Washington banker, who made what would be considered in New 

York a very modest fortune, and gave to the people nearly half of it, 



18 

is on Seventeenth Street right below the State, War and Navy 
Building, and near the house v^hich was General Grant's head- 
quarters the last year of the war. 

The Gallery building of Georgia marble is attractive within 

and without, and contains many admirable pictures, a few original 

^3 marbles and bronzes, and reproductions of most of the classic 

sculpture; also the lecture room, studios and class room of the 

Corcoran School of Art. 

The Trustees of the Gallery are very hospitable, entertaining at 

receptions many important guests, including notable conventions 

meeting in Washington, and from time to time removing their own 

collections to give place to such remarkable exhibitions as that of 

64 the American artists, or that of the St. Gaudens' collection. 

The main stairway is the most beautiful portion of the interior; 
most of the statuary is on the first floor of the Gallery, and most of 
the paintings on the second floor. 

Perhaps the most celebrated of its original marbles is "The 
Last Days of Napoleon" by Velas, which stands in the center of the 
^c upper hall. Among others is "The Greek Slave" by Hiram 
Powers of Vermont. The Corcoran Gallery has the largest 
collection of Barye bronzes (more than one hundred), which are 
kept in a separate room. It also has fine examples of Kemy's 
animal bronzes, and Remington's studies of western life in bronze; 
and many excellent specimens of modern paintings. 

The Gallery offers every opportunity for the display of the 
collections of millionaires, and usually has on exhibition loaned 

66 pictures of great merit and value. Former Senator Clark, of 
Montana, has had on exhibition there for a long time, old masters 
valued at over a million dollars. 

Walking down Seventeenth Street from the Corcoran Gallery 
towards the Potomac Park, at its foot, we pass the Continental 
Hall, National Daughters of the American Revolution; and the 
building for the International Bureau of American Republics, for 
which Mr. Carnegie gave $750,000. 

Directly south of the President's House, almost in the center of 
the original District of Columbia, and on the meridian of Washing- 
ton, the Washington Monument rises over five hundred and fifty- 

67 five feet. It is the dominating feature of every view of Washington, 
far and near, and has as many different aspects as the changes of 
the day and of the weather. It is the first thing you see as you 
approach Washington, and you can never get away from it while 
you remain in the city. It has a different beauty for every hour 
of the day and night. No man ever had a more perfect monument, 

"Build it to the skies," said Robert C. Winthrop at the laying 
of the cornerstone, "you cannot outreach the loftiness of his 



19 

principles; found it upon the massive and eternal rock, you cannot 
make it more enduring than his fame. Construct it of the peerless 
Parian marble, you cannot make it purer than his life. Exhaust 
upon it the rules and principles of ancient and modern art, you 
cannot make it more proportionate than his character." 

It is an obelisk of white marble, the shaft proper a little over five 
hundred feet high, fifty- five feet square at the base, and thirty- 
four feet at the top, surmounted by a pyramidon of fifty-five feet 
capped by pure aluminum, inscribed "Laus Deo." It is the 
highest masonry structure in the world, the nearest being the 
Philadelphia City Hall, with Wilham Penn's hat at five hundred 
and thirty-seven feet. 

A slow but safe elevator makes regular trips through the day, 
68 and we may also walk up the nine hundred steps of the winding 
stairway, through the interior lighted by electricity, to the platform 
at the height of five hundred and four feet, where we can look 
through eight port-holes, two in each side, for great distances 
north, east, south and west. This is the best place to get a com- 
plete idea of the plan of the capital. 

As we go up, we will see in the interior of the older part a hundred 
and seventy-nine memorial stones, some of them beautiful, sent 
by States, cities, organizations, individuals. Greece sent a marble 
from the Parthenon, and many other foreign countries, including 
Japan, China, and Siam, are represented. 

Popular contributions carried the obelisk up from the laying of 
the cornerstone in 1848 to the height of one hundred and fifty-two 
feet in 1855, when the money gave out and nothing more was done 
until 1878, when Congress took it up and by successive appropria- 
tions completed it, so that it was dedicated on February 21, 1885, 
Robert C. Winthrop being the orator on that occasion as he had 
been thirty-seven years before at the laying of the cornerstone. 

Before we leave the top of the Washington Monument, we must 

XQ take one more look over the flag-pole at the general view from the 

■^ Mall at our feet to the circle of hills which was a circle of forts 

in the Civil War, and even beyond to the Blue Ridge Mountains 

in the west, and almost to Mount Vernon on the Potomac in the 

south. 

Looking to the eastward, for example, we see the whole of the 
Mall, with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in the fore- 
ground, the old Department of Agriculture next to the eastward, 
with the wings of the new Department of Agriculture building 
behind it. Then comes the building of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, a fine example of the English Gothic, under which comes the 
ypw national museum, soon to be transferred from the ugly old building 
east of the Smithsonian Institution to the beautiful new building 



20 

directly north of it on the Mall. Here there is a great variety of 
exhibits including relics of Washington and Grant, and some 
loaned articles of which the most interesting is the flag that floated 
over Fort McHenry, to which Francis Scott Key addressed the 
Star Spangled Banner. 

There are many interesting places, some chiefly historic and 
some chiefly beautiful, and some both, outside of the City of 
yi Washington, within the range of our eye as we look from the 
Washington Monument. The Soldiers' Home, where veterans 
of the regular army live, started by General Scott, vdth the Mexico 
indemnity; the United States Navy Yard, which is chiefly a great 
gun factory, in the southeast ; the Army War College, on a neighbor- 
ing peninsula — these are some of the things that we might well 
visit. But there are two places that we must visit. One is Arling- 
ton, and the other is Mount Vernon. 

Two lines of trolley cars will take us to Arlington and one of 
them, by the way, will take us also to Mount Vernon. The one 
that goes through old Georgetown is the more interesting, because 
one gets a passing view of some of its old mansions, antedating the 
city of Washington by fifty years. One of them was used by George 
Washington when he was founding the Federal City, and back of 
it on the hills is the residence of his kinswoman, Mrs. Kennon, 
still living at an advanced age. Out what is now called Wisconsin 
Avenue Braddock marched to his defeat. 

The home of Francis Scott Key is on the south side of our 
route near the bridge that crosses the Potomac, and an association 
has undertaken to preserve it. 

As we cross the bridge, we see the buildings of Georgetown 
University, one of the oldest Jesuit Colleges, rising on the hill; we 
look up and down the Potomac, admiring its beauty, and the regatta 
course beneath; we go through a wretched-looking village on the 
Virginia side, and presently pass the mihtary reservation, Fort 
Myer, so neat in contrast, which will always be famous as the place 
where Orville Wright made his successful flights with his airship 
and narrowly missed death when he fell by accident. 
'^ By whichever gate we enter we should make our way through 
the cemetery, first of all to the front of the Arlington Mansion, 
and slowly drink in the beauty of the unsurpassed view of Washing- 
ton. 

Arlington Hill slopes to the river at the point where some day it 
will be spanned by a magnificent memorial bridge, celebrating 
the valor of the Civil War. This bridge wifl rest on the Washing- 
ton side about one mile west of the Washington Monument, where 
a superb portico memorial of Abraham Lincoln is proposed by the 
Senate Park Commission. 



21 

The plan of the City of Washington here appeals to us as it does 
not from any other point. 

Right at our feet lie the remains of Captain and Brevet-Major of 
Engineers in the Continental Army, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, 
recently removed from the lonely unmarked grave on a Maryland 
farm, where they were buried in 1825 by the family with which he 
found refuge during his later life. After all those years of neglect 
his remains were brought by act of Congress under the auspices 
of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, stopping for a 
memorial service in the Rotunda of the Capitol, and escorted by 
an appropriate procession to this spot, overlooking the city he 
helped to plan. General Sheridan, Admiral Porter, Secretary 
Gresham, and other notable men lie along this same crest. 

73 When our eyes can behold no more of this wonderful view, we 
turn to look at the house of Robert E. Lee, whose mother was 
related to the Washingtons, and whose house and estate were finer 
than Mount Vernon. The classic front of the mansion touches 
our sense of beauty at once. Glancing at the rooms we can easily 
imagine the old-fashioned hospitality of George Washington 
Parke Custis (whom Washington adopted when he married his 
mother, the widow Custis) and of Robert E. Lee who married in 
1 83 1 the only daughter of Custis in the drawing-room, where we 
register our names in the visitors' book. 

Lee was the head of the house from Custis's death in 1857, until 
on April 22, 1861, at Virginia's call, he left Arlington for Richmond, 

74 never to return. The Union troops made it a camp almost im- 
mediately, later it became a hospital, and by natural process a 
cemetery, the first soldier buried there being a Confederate prisoner 
who died in hospital. 

Quartermaster- General Meigs, upon whose suggestion President 
Lincoln made the estate in 1864 a national military cemetery, 
has there his monument with many other generals, not only of the 
Civil War, but of former and late wars. Twelve Revolutionary 
officers, including L'Enfant, are buried there. As the wives and 
daughters of soldiers buried at Arlington may also be buried there, 
many women rest side by side with those they loved. In all about 
twenty thousand persons have been buried at Arlington since 1864. 
Before that time there were only two, George Washington Parke 
Custis and his wife, besides their slaves. 

75 The Government bought the property when it was sold for 
delinquent taxes in 1864 for $26,100 and in 1877 paid George 
Washington Custis Lee $150,000 which satisfied his claim as the 
legal heir. The Superintendent of the Cemetery and his family 
live in the house and courteously receive visitors. 

On the wall of the drawing-room where Lee married Miss 



22 

Custis, hangs the most famous speech of modern times, Lincoln's 
address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on 
November 19, 1863. 

"Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth 
on this continent a new nation, conceived in hberty, and dedicated 
to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are 
engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any 
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are 
met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate 
a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here 
gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting 
and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we 
cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow this 
ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here 
have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. 

" The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, 
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, 
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who 
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us 
to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that 
from these honored dead we take increased devotion — that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this 
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that 
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth." 

As we go out into the grounds our eyes are irresistibly drawn 
to that marvellous view which Lafayette, when he visited Custis 
in 1825, said was one of the most beautiful he had ever seen. 

The Arlington estate, with its plateau, its ravines, its graceful 
slopes, its splendid trees, has been cultivated by landscape garden- 
ers to a high degree, and on the whole without spoiling its natural 
beauty. The structures which have been added, like the Temple 
of Fame, so-called, fit in very well with the surroundings. 

A costly auditorium has been authorized by Congress as a 
monumental memorial, but meanwhile the annual impressive 
ceremonies of Memorial Day will continue to take place in the 
amphitheatre, under the shadow of the glorified grape arbor of 
elder days. 
77 Of all the memorials in this cemetery, the most touching is that 
which stands in granite strength and simplicity over the common 
grave of 21 11 nameless soldiers of the Union Army, gathered, as 
it says, after the war, from the fields of Bull Run and the route of 
the Rappahannock. The inscription adds, simply: 

"Their remains could not be identified, but their names and 
deaths are recorded in the archives of their country, and its grate- 



76 



23 

ful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs. May 
they rest in peace. September A. D. 1866." 

78 There are many large and some beautiful monuments to officers 
and their wives, but they do not impress us like the rows of white 
headstones, ten thousand in one place, ranked like regiments, 
which mark the graves of private soldiers, in that silent army. 

70 Soldiers of the Spanish War sleep in similar rows, headed by the 
victims of the explosion of the Battleship Maine, not far from one 
of the anchors brought up from the wreck, and placed upon a hill 
in the Cemetery. 

A very good example of the landscape gardening in the Cemetery 
is that surrounding the receiving vault, which is sometimes taken 

80 for the tomb, of the Custises, who are buried elsewhere in the 
grounds in separate graves under simple shafts. 

Over all, from the tall staff in front of Arlington House, the 
American flag flies in the breeze from sunrise to sunset. At differ- 
ent points along the line of the graves are bronze tablets, each 
bearing a verse of Colonel Theodore O'Hara's "Bivouac of the 
Dead," first read at Frankfort in the dedication of the monument 
to the Kentucky soldiers killed in the Mexican War. The second 
verse at least will live : 

" On Fame's eternal camping-ground 
Their silent tents are spread. 
And glory guards, with solemn round, 
The bivouac of the dead." 
The trip to Mount Vernon, fifteen miles south of Washington, 
on the Potomac River, is better taken by boat than by rail if the 
weather be pleasant. But either route is interesting, giving us 
first a view of the water-front of Washington, including the whole 
extent of the Potomac Park, the Army War College and the Navy 
Yard. Then five miles down the river we see the ancient city of 
Alexandria, Washington's business town, where he spent much 
time during the week and where on Sundays he attended service 
in the square old pew, still unchanged, in Christ Church, near that 
of the Custises and Robert E. Lee. If we had time we should 
see the unique George Washington relics in the George Washington 
Lodge of Masons, of which he was master, in the second story of 
the market house, and the nearby old Carlisle Mansion which was 
Braddock's headquarters before he started for the West. 

On the high ridge west of Alexandria is the famous Episcopal 

Seminary, where Phillips Brooks received his theological training. 

The Mount Vernon estate stands high and much of it is rolling 

ground. If we have come by boat, we have a long cHmb to the 

« J house, while the trolley station is not far from the house, at the edge 

^ ' of the estate. When we reach the front of the house with its low 



24 

facade and eight simple columns, more familiar than any other 
house in America, we instinctively, as at Arlington, look out upon 
the view, which here of course is simply of the Potomac River and 
the Maryland shore, with its low hills beyond. Marshall Hall, 
the home of a cousin of Chief Justice Marshall, is in full view, while 
right around the next point south of Mount Vernon is Gunston 
Hall, the residence of George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill 
of Rights. 

Turning we examine the plain but pleasant face of George 

32 Washington's home from his marriage in 1759 until he died forty 
years later. When Washington's heir, John Augustine Washing- 
ton, in 1855, offered the place for sale because he could not main- 
tain it, a woman, Ann Pamela Cunningham of South Carolina, 
determined that she would preserve it for all the people as the 
Government ought to have done. Washington's heir wanted 
$200,000 for it. Miss Cunningham organized the Mount Vernon 
Ladies Association, which made her Regent, and appointed Vice- 
regents for the other twelve original States, and appealed to the 
country for the money, which was as much to raise then as a million 
dollars would be now. Edward Everett made the largest con- 
tribution, $69,000, which he earned by repeating his lecture on 
Washington, and from certain writings. Washington Irving gave 

33 $500. Many thousands of school children gave five cents apiece; 
and in i860 the Association owned Mount Vernon. Its Regents 
provided a fund for its care, and every visitor pays twenty-five cents 
towards its maintenance, while some special gifts have been given 
to recover portions of the original estate, to repair the mansion and 
other buildings, to restock the deer park. Many pieces of furni- 
ture and other household goods have been gathered from all over 
the country and replaced in the rooms of the mansion. The 

84 Government ought to own it and give free access to it. 

The house is surrounded by beautiful trees, some of which go 
back to Washington's time, and is as pleasing from the side as 
from the front, whether from a distance or from a near view. 
The view of the house from the rear is little known in pictures. 

or It shows some of the offices, some of the oldest trees, and part of 
the garden. 

Rhode Islanders in 1888 replaced the sun-dial which stood on 
the west lawn and whose motto, "Horas non numero nisi serenas" 
(I record none but sunny hours) Washington used to read. Hours 
can be pleasantly and profitably spent in examining the rooms of 
the house, and the furnishings, decorations and relics, from the 
main hall, with the Key of the Bastile, sent by Lafayette to Wash- 
ington, and three of Washington's swords, by the south bedroom 
on the second floor, where Washington died, to the room in the 
attic, where Mrs. Washington died. 



25 

The tomb of Washington divides the interest with the home of 
86 Washington. It is the plainest of brick vaults with an arched gate- 
way bearing a marble slab inscribed: "Within this enclosure rest 
the remains of General George Washington." Inside are the 
words: "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that beheveth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 

Two marble coffins, each hewn from a single block of marble, 
stand before us as we look through the barred gateway, now never 
opened, and which is constantly guarded. The one containing 
the remains of Washington stands on the right and is simply in- 
scribed with his name, the United States coat of arms and a draped 
flag. The eagle in the coat of arms has lost one of its talons, taken, 
it is said, by a visitor during the Civil War. On the left stands the 
coffin inscribed, "Martha, Consort of Washington. Died May 21, 
1801, aged seventy-one years." The last date is wrong, for Mrs. 
Washington died a year later. About forty members of the Wash- 
ington and Custis families and their relatives sleep within the vault. 

The monument beside it is in memory of Judge Bushrod Wash- 
ington, of the Supreme Court, who inherited Mount Vernon. 
Eight memorial trees, planted by distinguished persons and 
societies, stand here. 

This is not where the Washingtons were first buried. The 
old tomb is nearer the house. It was because in 1831 it was 
entered by a robber, who took a skull, which he thought was 
Washington's, but which proof showed was not, that the new tomb 
was constructed and the remains of the Washingtons and their 
relatives were transferred here. 

The National Capitol and its related surroundings is a place 
of memorials. The great of the present day are crowded by the 
great of former generations. 

Besides the historic buildings and their portraits, busts, and 
statues, there are thirty-five statues in the parks and streets of the 
city. Many of them are of mihtary and naval heroes. A larger 
number are on horseback than in any other city. There are here 
an increasing number of monuments to the heroes of peace. 

The statue farthest east in Washington is that representing 

87 Lincoln emancipating the negro, and stands in Lincoln Square 

twelve blocks east of the Capitol. The farthest west monument 

is the Peace Cross on the site of the proposed Protestant Episcopal 

Cathedral on the heights above Georgetown. 

Among the statues last unveiled are those of Henry Wadsworth 

OQ Longfellow, the poet of the common people (read slowly), and 

John Witherspoon, President of Princeton, advocate and signer of 

the Declaration of Independence, of whom Horace Walpole said in 

the House of Commons, "Cousin America has run off with a 



26 

Presbyterian parson." Witherspoon stands almost in front of 
the British Embassy, on Connecticut Avenue, and almost in sight 
39 of Longfellow, who is sitting in a poet's chair facing the east. 

More statues have been authorized and will gradually be erected. 
Christopher Columbus, Steuben, Kosciusko, John Barry, besides 
Grant, are among those under way. 

It is to be hoped that beautiful fountains, which are very few in 
Washington, may be employed much more in the future to com- 
memorate those whom we delight to honor. 

The more we contemplate President Washington's plans for 
this even now beautiful city, the more we appreciate the man and 
the largeness of his faith in his country's destiny. 

grv "By broad Potomac's silent shore, 

Better than Trajan he lowly lies, 
Gilding her green declivities 
With glory now and evermore. 
Art to his fame no aid hath lent. 
His country is his monument." 



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